the blob

Did anyone ever subscribe to marvel comics in the early 80s? I did for a few titles and it was amazing that they managed to get to me in good shape.

good stuff

Is this a normal thing for people here? Like budgeting 9 hours a day for your "job" and commuting, an hour for family time/checking homework, an hour to make/eat dinner, an hour of exercise, and then 1.5 hours of comic time -- organizing, selling, shopping, BSing here, an hour for art/reading, etc? I know I should have a financial budget, but basically my wife will not play along, but in my old age I feel like if I am going to do things I should be doing with my time, I need to organize that time better and can't just constantly push my life past midnight because, frankly, the lack of sleep is probably killing me. Is a time budget how some of you manage to get a lot of things done while also being comic nerds? You'd think that someone who used to religiously bill in 6 minute increments should be better at this, but I am not.

They have been doing shows there forever if I remember correctly, different event folks. I am pretty sure I went to a show in 84-85 where I younger Carbo intimidated a 13 year old me into him looking at all my books I was carrying under the guise of maybe he'd make an offer on them (really I think he wanted to check to see if I had stolen any from him --- I had not), and quite possibly one in 1977 or so my dad took me and my brother to. It's weird, I was just down there in June at MSG to see the Cure and I didn't even notice it coming down, but I guess in the dark I am not looking up.

well, fees on pre 1976 books probably have some wiggle room, particularly your pretty standard marvels and DCs from the 60s - 70s. The substantial price bump is borderline arbitrary in my mind. I get the resto check and page counts starts getting really tricky on your GA books, giant sizes, etc. They can let graders go and all the training they put into them or keep them busy.

I dunno who was paying $10-20 for that snap together stuff. I know some terrible grading company was buying those things in bulk and grading in his basement for like $8-9? (I know this because he was a friend of a friend.... can't remember the name of that one, but he was lambasted here in the early 2000s). Wasn't CGC $15 when they started? I know, inflation, but also economies of scale and learning curve going the other way.

there were still 8 tracks when that album came out in 1985??

I don't think it is an ultra profitable business to there probably isn't much fat in their pricing despite what we think, but if volume is down they might need to lower fees to keep it up

No, Incredible Hulk 2 from 1960whatever

One of these days I will get around to slabbing my Hulk 2 type books and a few others that are arguably worth it (I sold most of the major keys years ago), but the amount of money I would spend slabbing a host of $75-200 books in my collection would basically be enough to create a whole new, pretty good, collection, yet the market seems to think those should be slabbed. CGC is a great product and if I am spending real money nowadays I want that slab, but criminey there should be a cheaper option for the mid tier books 9.4-6 and below that adds the requisite trust and liquidity. MCS basically creates that for a $7 fee on consignment, but they don't give you that tamper proof packaging. I get it though, if the goal is a 9.8 it probably needs all the bells and whistles. And my guess is that MCS is not doing the same level of resto check on a cheaper book. If some book winds up being restored from them do they accept returns? (But you still get burned on slabbing fees?) As for CGC, if they lowered fees they'd keep everyone on salary pretty busy if there has been a slow down. They might need to splurge on a good espresso maker.

I know they provide this nice forum and a definite valuable service for the appropriate books, but it is hard to wrap my head around the amount of $ that has been spent on slabbing books that probably do not warrant it and the creation of artificial perceived rarity for some 9.8 books.

hey hey, we don't need to be calling folks goons, some of my best friends are goons

I don't think $15 is realistic. Small local cons in NYC were charging $15 a day 20 years ago. Tokyo is expensive, but I don't think union laborers at that convention center make $50 an hour like at Javitz, there are probably a huge number of volunteers working the show, Japanese baseball fans clean up the stadium after the game, it's a different world there in terms of communal actions (they also charge $14 extra for co-splay privileges). With that said, not that long ago NYCC was $35 a day. I am not sure why it has more than doubled. Javitz does exist to try to make revenue for the State of New York, so they're going to charge as much as they can to the convention who is going to pass along the cost. Pre-covid Javits made a modest profit.

Will be forgotten in 2 weeks

Yeah, but that could be them hoping for a lowball. Remax calls me 3X a week on my primary residence. It is annoying.

I am selling a (small) NYC apartment right now. Multiple offers, cash. over ask. Of course, a card bro isn't buying it. Is the economy about to tank or take off. No idea.

They're just going to say not described and demand a free return anyway, so why bother?

Not that it really explains right now vs. why things were good 5 years ago, but I was at a millenial white collar wedding this weekend and it probably sums things up. Mid/early 30s professionals, deferring kids and home ownership while paying off massive student loans and hoping interest rates calm down. No wonder they don't have fun money for comics unless they were some sort of tech or finance bro.

wow, $4 comics don't even warrant a bag nowadays? I look forward to your Buffalo Con report and photo spread every year. It looks like the most depressing show I've ever seen. Maybe Utica Con is worse, I dunno.

well, folks used to come here to hype some book they had 50 copies of too

Ouch, no posts in 12 days is telling....

I think every single painting Ross did since he became a TV personality is catalogued. My understanding is that the vast bulk are warehoused and they keep tight control over what comes to market, sort of like Debeers diamonds, perhaps creating a false sense of scarcity. He painted a huge number of paintings. Who the they is I dunno, but I remember reading stuff about this when they first started with the documentaries on him.

The slab says 9.8. I guess sell it and eat the fees and find a copy you love or live with this? Just give good front and back scans.

The OP was referencing an article on the general fine art market. While I don't think OA and "fine art" are completely independent and excess money influences both, I am not sure if a softening of demand on six figure work (which can happen independent of easy money) necessarily filters down into $500 OA or even some $15K grail OA art. On the high end art market, it is a weird balance. If the stock market is doing 25% folks who might be interested in acquiring more big time art have more funds for it, but on the flip side, why tie up $500K in some painting if you're making 25% in the market? Hard for me to grasp as I am so far from that.

I'm not sure if the art market for $75,000 abstract or pop artists is really running in line with OA. Maybe a few of the same people, but not likely. Yes, a sense of "I have extra money" permeated both groups I understand folks like to show off their OA collection on line and stuff, but at the end of the day is it just a lot easier to have "enough" OA? I've bought my fair share but at the end of the day the good stuff should be displayed and how many of us have unlimited wall space? So I have 50, 75 pages of OA and almost nowhere to display it so I stopped looking. I sold my kirby and steranko pages because I needed money, I'll never be able to afford those again. I've always wanted a decent John Buscema Conan page and now the most lame ones are like $800 from his "I don't care anymore" later work. i guess that isn't happening except via trade.